The Floating Balloon Wind Generator

[Acclaim93]

4kw doesn't seem like a whole lot to me...

[snappyware]

This thing has no practical use..yet.

The ability to lift such equipment to generate enough power to be useful is not available.

In laymen terms "Big torque = Big power"

This wont fly....pun intended.

P.S. The robot doesn't help the sale.

[Grimdopple]

I DONT TRUST ROBOTS!

[personNumber0123]

How much does the helium cost?

[slushjoe]

My name is robby robot Im a big dork or you smoke to many ciggaretes talking through a voice box shees

[Siimisker]

If you want get your message through, cut that crap with the sound. I mean, is this supposed to be somehow futuristic or what? Extremely low-fi...

[DhrTressie]

The silly thing is that it isn't such a bad idea. Get the drag down so tether costs are minimised, and get it up into the jetstream, and you're looking at affordable baseline power technology. Don't dismiss it staight off, as there might be some promise here.

[Artsev]

First ever made google translate robot announcer!

[Sanjay792100]

concept is good , but not viable. because it require to lift load of alternator , stabilizer for sturdy operation i.e. equal weight of alternator + additional load. think balloon of what size. Instead if you can bring all motion to ground it will be possible.

[4evermetalhead]

-copilot to pilot- : watch out.....baloon....BALOOOOONNNN­.....

[myprimemover]

Do not believe these wattage claims. The rotor would need to be 300 feet in diameter to make the advertised KM, and weigh several tons!

[robert632]

killer pigeon!! 

[jorgedude888]

Awesome!

[lothre]

This will look very different in application. It will harness very little of the energy of the wind it is floating in, be buffeted, tossed and twisted around with anything but totally steady wind, which nature does not provide. no way to maintain stability of an object hovering in the air like this anchored by a single line.

Helicopters are the best at hovering and they get tossed around in rough winds. Airships and hot air balloons stay on the ground in windy conditions for a reason.

[anthonylynch1]

Great if we hadn't invented aeroplanes.

[noreplyism]

My friend had a kite EXACTLY the same design as this 25 years ago. We always found birds found it so strange they would come and fly close to it and sometimes even fly into it. We are talking about killer pigeons here!!!

[489035002]

What if wind stops for a couple seconds? That turbine will fall off and u have to set it up again and again?

[aForkandaSpoon]

@489035002 I think it is helium filled

[paack3]

you cant recognize the windows reader?

[js111410]

gay



[iindium49]

this has been made well a small version a rancher made in Arizona but it had issues with twisting in the wind and getting tangled up. still, all in all, not a bad idea. does need to be better stabilized. also needs a larger air catch think wind sock .

[gan1hemx]

rama raju

[cusanusnicolas]

So, two years later, just where are we...

[imburne]

This is really dumb. If it was to play out in a real life scenario it would totally fail. Maybe this is why its done with the robo voice

[chuy0720]

A test model of the M.A.R.S.Generator will be erected in a village in Mexico.The generator will power a water-purification unit.the test model will be constructed and built in wiarton,canada once finished,the test model will be inflated with helium and tested to make sure that it will function correctly. Then, the test model will be shipped to Mexico

[chuy0720]

where it will be re-inflated and erected in the village location.the m.a.r.s generator will be connected to a bank of batteries,witch will convert the hardnessed energy into 10 kw of power

[hablerz]

In a strong wind you could end up flying over China - in your house !

[LegitGamers]

Go to freemicrosoftpoint[DOT]com for a working one!

[InsaneJim]

the amperage and watts drop the further you go with the wire. you better have a 3kw generator for the currant to travel 1000 feet of wire to the house.

[RogueLegend999]

ballon not practical.

a tower would work though

[mstaff657]

how pathetic

[jerryaltman]

Heliun is not renewable. We cant took heliun from atmosphere, since technology can't do that. Heliun is extrated from methane mines, and those mines will not last for more than 30 years.

[ShirakOmegaX]

Hydrogen is however

[jerryaltman]

Hidrogen is highly flamable and leak, Even thick metal tanks allow hydrogen leak.

[ShirakOmegaX]

True hydrogen is flammable however it is easily created with electricity and water. Hydrogen in a state called HH0 Browns gas is more stable and was even used in the water car. Hydrogen can be stored in a safe manner using compartment technology there are also new plastic metal composites being created already on the market that would be ideal. Do a quick search on HAA aircraft already in use. Of note Helium can be distilled from natural gas making it more common than originally thought.

[jerryaltman]

I know about eletrolises, and search for better tanks for hidrogen...

As I said, Helium is taken from Methane (natural gas), but most methane mines have very few Helum percentage of helium. The better mines of methane rich in helium are on USA, but they will not last more than 20 or 30 years.

[ShirakOmegaX]

Have a search for the new gas mines off the coast of New Guinea and western Australia. I am fairly certain it can be distilled from natural gas. Exon mobile is heading the PNG drill. It was originally thought that the US had the only really large stockpiles of helium. The Hindenburg disaster was a result of the USA cutting the Germans off from Helium and them having to resort to hydrogen however the paint was the real cause. See Myth busters. The HAA experiments today look really promising.

[jerryaltman]

The paint of Hindenburg was only part of cause. the real cause, believed today, was a cable that rupture and damage a compartment of hidrogen. The electrostatic only ignited the leaking hidrogen. The paint do not spread fire fast as we see in the footage.

There are large natural gas mines around the word, but most have a too few percentage of helium. Very few natural gas mines have fine percentages of helium.

[dulcebelluminexperti]

I can call 911 and tell them that my son is up there! I don't think this idea would fly, literally. Too unsightly

[LostYearsProd]

That's great!

[SCADZO]

mi granny saw those

long ago

We call it

VIMANAS

[velveetaslingshot]

I love all the haters that immediately jump on the "It won't work!!!" bandwagon. At least they are trying to think of new and innovative ideas to benefit mankind. What are you haters doing besides being cynical quitters???

[realjoefriday]

Use hydrogen instead of helium -- a tiny fraction of the price, double the buoyancy and there's no reason that modern technology can't keep it from going Hindenburg on us.

[RupertsCrystals]

And in fact it wouldn't be a major problem if it did. There would be no people in it, plus if it was built so that there was minimal damage to the other components, they could be reused.

Hydrogen burns very quickly, therefore damage would be minimal.

[DonHoraldo]

I see 3 problems. first whats to stop the power line getting twisted. next we have no way of containing helium ad infinitum. how long till you have to fill the ballast again. third for every 1.7 grams of the device you need 1 liter of helium so a small 25 kg generator requires 15000 liters (15 cubic meters) of helium to obtain neutral buoyancy not even accounting for the envelope tether etc. a working device would more likely be in the range of 500-750kg so 500 cubic meter balloon.

[minieggg1]

the scale diagram at the end shows that these ballons are going to be huge so 500cubic meters is apparently feasable.

They also said their first model will weigh 4kg and thats just over 9cubic meters of helium.

[DonHoraldo]

that's taking them at trier word. and again helium isn't cheap and we know of no substance able to hold it that is relatively light.

[grundgemonster]

Cut out the spam you pointless cunt.

[edstar83]

sounds like people are going to be racists towards robots too. lol

[RCvolunteer1978]

this is a great idea it is to bad there is no support for anything new. Plus city county state permitts would slow the use in the high need areas I could see one flying over a small high raise 6 to 8 story high building producing it's own power for the have you thought of "the same type" floating on the ocean waves about 1000 ft out ancord to the sea floor spining from the sea waves ???

[JUANCARLOS1931]

iti9efe

[DeaconBlues007]

Helium huh?  Don't think it's gonna happen. Anyway, could you PLEASE get rid of that crappy narration voice? It sounds like a very amature attempt to imitate "Hal-9000" from the movie "2001 A Space Odyssey."

[trunk516]

Wonder why they felt the need for the Outer Limits type narration?? Are we to believe just because it's a fairly new idea that it's somehow other worldly?? YIKES!!

[wardkuentzel]

shut the --- up

[sakla123]

this very impresionant idea

[supersonicboom1975]

This is good idea. Imagine a Hindenburg which turns around like that. I don't think you need kerosen for that, just helium.

[zecnobot]

Get a real narrator please! There are tons of voice actors out there.

[soozieqty]

The sound is totaly irritating!

[BR5499a]

@soozieqty Please repost without the silly sound effect.

[billjesusgates]

if i see these things flowin' around, i am going to shoot 'em. hee haw!

[PleasureTV]

heheh... I think many would do that

[Yaaroslav]

I think the first it will be useful on the top of the mountain Because of its wind power it will move down until the surface. The second is - you must use the hydrogenum to refil its baloon, that you receive from the extra sufficient energy cases - and only then you plans shall have a good chanses to be real!

[marshalljoyner]

this is dumb

[rgbrew]

Do you think the narrator gets many jobs doing voice overs or just stephen Hawkin impressions?

[utanja]

Actually, that's a really great concept: with one serious problem: world supplies of helium will be depleted (because of rapid over population and growth) within about 10 years, and projected new supplies will not keep up with demand, so I'm not sure what you could use to keep it aloft.

[HolycrapIminafire]

you might want to check your numbers on that one... I've not heard anything about depleted supplies of helium.

[utanja]

you might want to catch up on your reading. this has been in the science news for several years already.

[utanja]

You have some reading to catch up on. The region outside Amarillo Texas is the worlds major source of Helium. The problem is that we cannot synthesize Helium at present and like all resources overpopulation leading to excessive demand will consume it unless there are strict regulations to force users to recycle it. The good news is that it will force us to develop fusion and travel to the moon and neptune to mine the element.

[candr]

Actually helium is cryogenically distilled out of natural gas to produce the helium we put in balloons not just from Texas.

[kamalmichael]

excellent

[Legionnaire18]

A 24ft diameter balloon filled with helium could provide lift for approximately 455lbs. That's enough for a generator that's a few kilowatts. A weather balloon that's of that diameter costs about a hundred bucks, if that. The helium you could by locally for not too much.

[DonHoraldo]

helium isn't cheep. nor do weather balloons last long.

[Legionnaire18]

I mean, fuck, I even basically said that in my comment IMMEDIATELY following my first. Christ.

[Legionnaire18]

Sorry. I just don't care for naysayers that ignore the blatantly obvious fact that putting dozens of tons of metal up in the sky is a VERY routine thing done THOUSANDS of times a day in the U.S alone.

[tsport100]

It doesn't generate lift by burning TONS of kerosene idiot, it's meant to be lighter than air & GENERATE power LOL

You obviously didn't see the doco on this, they only lifted a 15 watt generator with a huge prototype that hardly turned in the wind at all. It could just illuminate a single light bulb.

The Hindenburg had 7 MILLION cubic feet of hydrogen, was longer than 3x 747s end to end and it could only lift 112 ton.

Who's ignorant of the 'blatantly obvious' now?

[Legionnaire18]

Wow, great way of missing my sarcasm. Kerosene is something they put in JET PLANES for fuel. My comment about putting kerosene + hundreds of passengers + flying at hundreds of miles an hour was my way of mocking people that think this would be any more dangerous than something that is done thousands of times per day(i.e, jet plane commute).

I can't believe that was missed by you. I mean, wow.

[tsport100]

You really are fucking stupid aren't you!

1) JETS generate LIFT by flying at 100s of mph burning TONS of Kero in 100,000hp worth of jet engines. They are not stationary and tethered to the ground! LOL

2) By burning TONS of kero to stay in the air a jet aircraft CONSUMER about 1 gallon per second. What you're talking about is just stupidity.

In the video they talking about MW. Your average power station is 1 GW... a few "kw" is a residential system kid and their test was nowhere near 1 kw

[Legionnaire18]

What a fucking tool you are to still not get the joke. It has NOTHING to do with what it's burning and everything to do with the "danger" involved.

And your average power station DOESN'T generate a gig of power. That's peak for oil/gas and nuke.

[tsport100]

MOST coal power stations (the largest share of US power generation) are 1GW... get some facts idiot.

[Legionnaire18]

No. Most PEAK at 1GW. The rest are below it.

[tsport100]

FUCK... There are 3+ GW plants everywhere!!!

[Legionnaire18]

Gimme some statistics to back this up.

[Legionnaire18]

The entire POINT of bringing kerosene AND the passengers AND the speed of a jet aircraft is to say they are FAR more dangerous than a little 50-75tons you are saying would be required to generate x amount of power.

Jesus is crying. I can't believe I had to explain it this far.

[tsport100]

Go back to school kid... It takes tons of fuel to keep a couple hundred tons IN THE AIR! Take the power out of an aircraft and it crashes to the ground.

You don't see any danger in bolting a structure to the ground that is lighter than air, so it paper thin, gets pushed around by wind yet has not powered control devices at all and hanging the weight of 2 semi trailors off it???... You make me laugh!

[Legionnaire18]

I think it's sad you still don't get my joke. So joke's on you. Tool.

[fokker99]

Good idea, but yes as has been stated, there is no way you can have a decent sized generator up in the sky, its just too dangerous. What happens if a bird flies into it popping the balloon, or some kid shoots it with a bb gun, and 20 tonnes of copper and iron come crashing to earth? You need to find a way of transmitting rotational energy back to the ground where the generator would sit stationary. Not an easy task but should be do-able with a bit of lateral thinking.

[BelligerentAuthority]

We'd rather burn fossil fules here in america

[tsport100]

A 1.5 MW generator for a normal tower mounted wind turbine weighs 7.5 ton and the gearbox to step up the speed off the blades weighs 16.2 ton plus a 50 ton Nasal to hold it all together.

So these blokes propose lifting 75 ton plus the weight of the blades on a kite?

I'd want to stay WAY out of the fall raduis of that thing.

[Legionnaire18]

Yeah. Then they could add kerosene to it, lift it thousands of feet in the air, shove hundreds of people on board and fly it around at hundreds of miles an hour.

Something like that would be WAY too dangerous to have in the air so they may as well not even TRY.

[thisguyflip]

should have been Samuel L. Jackson....Mutha fuka.

[PatrikMacGoohan]

One bad feature - this design has to lift the generator, it's machinery and all it's heavy copper and housing up into the sky and hold it there for as long as it's creating power. I don't see how the heavy stuff can be kept on the ground.

[sum1uallno]

Not only that it is a good conductor for lightning strikes. LOL maybey we should learn from Benjimen Franklin. But it could work if you get through all the flaws!

PatrikMacGoohan (1 month ago) Show Hide +1 Marked as spam Reply | Spam One bad feature - this design has to lift the generator, it's machinery and all it's heavy copper and housing up into the sky and hold it there for as long as it's creating power. I don't see how the heavy stuff can be kept on the ground.

[Legionnaire18]

Wouldn't it make better sense to stabilize this by attaching four winches to it like a guyed wire? That should prevent it from swaying from a stationary position.

[Energyium]

what about airplane collisions

[solarday]

Good concept. Some stability problems in gusty conditions I would imagine. Good luck with the design.

The voice sounds like it was generated in Leopards (OS X v10.5) integrated text to speech generator. It's an easy way of checking what you've written makes sense.

[shaxmitra]

Souds like the voice is a man with a talking machine because his throat has canser..

Anyway interesting idea, but in stead of a line it shouls have a flexible pin/mast conected to it, so that it will follow the wind but be more safe from crashing if no wind.

[Sheegweyane]

Practical, I think.

[keyanage]

better than amateur human over voicing